The Last Jedi Tops Competition At Christmas Box Office

Star Wars: The Last Jedi easily topped the competition this weekend, while also securing the second largest Christmas day box office ever. While the release of the latest Star Wars film brought with it a wave of fan backlash, much of the divisiveness has been over-exaggerated by a vocal minority of fans. While aggregation metrics have shown the film is a smash-hit with critics, those displeased with the film have pointed to its split audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. But as there’s no vetting for those reviews, it’s hardly an indicator of the average moviegoer.

Regardless of where viewers fall in terms of The Last Jedi‘s quality or worthiness to bear the Star Wars name, it’s clear that the film is continuing to excite audiences around the world. The Last Jedi hit $500 million after a week in international theaters (and less than that domestically) and has continued to dominate since then. Unsurprisingly, this past weekend saw it once again on top and break another record along the way.

Variety is reporting that Star Wars: The Last Jedi pulled in $27.5 million in North American theaters yesterday, giving it the second highest haul of all time for Christmas day. It’s expected that The Last Jedi will ultimately outgross last year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but fall short of matching The Force Awakens at the domestic and international box office alike. Of course, being the first new Star Wars film in a decade, Episode VII will likely hang onto its spot for a long time.

Friday to Monday, Star Wars: The Last Jedi brought in over $100M domestically, with $75.1M from Friday-Sunday internationally. All of that and the film has yet to open in China. All told, the movie will pass $400M at home once the final numbers are tallied, and its worldwide total will break $800M after less than two weeks in theaters.

Angry fans may be creating ridiculous The Last Jedi petitions and decrying the film on social media, but the negative press hasn’t seemed to impact the box office. All told, the latest Star Wars film is outpacing some of its predecessors and far outstripping most of the 2017 competition. And while financial success doesn’t always bely quality, it’s impossible to argue with the fact that the majority of fans and casual moviegoers seem thrilled with Star Wars: The Last Jedi.